The present invention relates to lids for containers, such as soft drink containers, and more specifically to a dispenser for the lids to be utilized with containers of this type.
In the food service industry, the trend of restaurants in recent years for customers who order beverages is to provide the customer with an empty container or cup for the beverage and allow the customer to select the particular type of beverage they wish from a beverage dispenser accessible by the customer. This reduces the overall time an employee spends with an individual customer, as the employee no longer fills the container for the customer, thereby increasing the number of customers that can be serviced by the employee. In doing so, the restaurant also enables the customer to refill the container as necessary without having to return to the counter and have an employee refill the container from behind the counter.
In order to enable the customer to leave the establishment with the container holding the beverage, the restaurant also positions a number of covers or lids for the specific size containers provided by the restaurant for use by the customer near the beverage dispensers. Thus, when the customer has finished filling the container with the desired amount of the beverage, the customer can pick out the appropriate lid from a bin or other holder in which the lids are located and attach the lid to the container. This allows the customer to leave the establishment with the container without having to worry about spilling the beverage held in the container, and also to drink the liquid held in the container through an alternative means other than placing the container against the customer""s mouth, such as by using a straw that can be inserted through an opening in the lid.
Unfortunately, because the lids are normally located within open bins disposed adjacent the beverage dispenser, on many occasions a number of lids associated with providing the lids in this manner. For example, when a customer reaches into a bin to pull out a lid for a container, many times the customer will pull out a lid of an inappropriate size for the particular container. Also, the customer may reach into a bin to pull out a lid of the appropriate size, but may pull out a greater number of lids than are necessary for the number of containers held by the customer. In each of these and other situations, the number of lids dispensed to the customer exceeding the number required are usually discarded, such as by the customer throwing the excess lids into a waste bin or simply by dropping the lids on the floor. As a result, a large number of lids are wasted by the customers, resulting in significantly increased costs to the establishment. It is also possible for the customer to return the excess lids to the dispenser after having handled them, which is less than desirable.
In order to dispense container lids in a manner which reduces the number of wasted lids, many prior art lid dispensing machines have been developed. In the numerous dispenser designs which have been developed, the dispensers operate in a variety of fashions, such as by holding the individual lids on a rod disposed within a housing that enables lids to be dispensed one at a time, as shown in Garske et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,220, or by urging a stack of lids out of a housing under the bias of a spring such that the outermost lid can be singly dispensed from the housing, as shown in Gunderson U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,571 and Franz U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,952, among others.
However, in each of the prior art dispenser designs, the designs are highly complex and involve a large number of moving parts which have to engage one another in a complicated fashion in order for the dispenser to operate satisfactorily. Thus, if any of the parts malfunctions in any way, or if the lids are not precisely positioned within the dispensers, these prior art dispenser designs will not function properly, preventing the lids from being dispensed at all, or dispensing too many lids at one time.
Therefore, it is desirable to develop a dispenser for container lids which effectively dispenses one lid at a time from the dispenser, and which has a simplified design that reduces the number of moving parts within the dispenser in order to provide a reliable dispenser. It is also desirable to develop a dispenser with a design that is easy to operate, but that also effectively limits the number of lids dispensed by the dispenser to a single lid each time the dispenser is actuated.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a container lid dispenser including a reliable and easy to use actuating mechanism that effectively dispenses individual lids contained within the dispenser while utilizing a minimum number of moving parts.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a container lid dispenser in which the actuating mechanism for dispensing the lids holds the lids reliably within the dispenser in a manner which does not damage the lids during the process of loading of the lids into the dispenser or while the lids are held in the dispenser, or during the process of dispensing the lids.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a container lid dispenser in which the container lids can be loaded into the dispenser in a quick and easy manner.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a container lid dispenser that is capable of being used with lids having any number of sizes and/or configurations.
The present invention is a dispenser for container lids in which the container lids are held within and dispensed from the dispenser by the rotation of a pair of endless belts mounted around belt gears disposed on opposite sides of the dispenser. Each belt includes a number of transverse notches positioned in alignment with the notches disposed on the opposite belt that engage and hold the peripheral edge or each of a number of vertically stacked lids positioned between the belts within the dispenser. As the belts are rotated through the use of an actuating mechanism connected to the belts, the belts move the stack of lids downwardly towards an open end of the dispenser. When each lid reaches the lowermost end of the belt, the belt moves around a lowermost belt gear and outwardly away from the lid, enabling the single lid to fall out of the open end of the dispenser under the influence of gravity.
The actuating mechanism, which is operable to move the belts within the dispenser and dispense the lids, includes a lever which extends between and is movably attached to opposite sides of the dispenser. Each end of the lever has a ratchet gear mounted to the lever that is capable of rotating with respect to the lever in only one direction. When the lever is depressed, the ratchet gear does not rotate but engages and rotates a drive gear rotatably mounted between the lever and the belts. The drive gear is also capable of rotating in only the direction opposite the ratchet gear. The drive gear is engaged opposite the ratchet gear with a driven gear that is fixedly mounted to a shaft within the dispenser on which one of the belt gears is also mounted. As the drive gear rotates to cause rotation of the driven gear, the shaft on which the driven gear and belt gear are mounted also rotates in order to rotate the belt gear and the belt around the belt gear.
The gear ratios of the ratchet gear to the drive gear and driven gear, and the drive gear to the belt gear, are sufficient to rotate the belt gear an angular distance capable of dispensing one and only one lid from within the dispenser each time the lever is depressed. Further, when the lever is released, a spring biases the lever and ratchet gear upwardly past the drive gear to reset the actuating mechanism. However, because the ratchet gear is capable of rotating when moved upwardly past the drive gear, which cannot rotate in that direction, the ratchet gear does not rotate the drive gear, allowing the lids to be maintained in the position at which they were located when the last lid was dispensed.
Various other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following detailed description taken together with the drawings.